Description:
A Very Fine Italian 19th Century Carved Carrara Marble Group Titled "LA
GIOIA NELL'INNOCENZA DOPO IL LAVORO" (The Joy of Innocence After
Labour) by Professor Raffaele Belliazzi (Italian, 1835-1917), Signed:
Profor Belliazzi, Carrara. On a dark green serpentine marble column with
rotating top.
Sculpture Height: 38 5/8 inches (98 cm)
Pedestal Height: 34 inches (86.5cm)
REF: 798
It may be possible to identify the present marble sculpture of a boy eating grapes with Belliazzi's "La Gioia nell'inocenzo dopo il lavoro" of 1874. Like so many examples of Italian verismo sculpture, the titles given to them are deliberately non-descriptive, but rather loosely based on the theme of the subject. Here, the young apprentice is depicted perched on a protruding rock and delights in a refreshing bunch of grapes given to him in reward for his work. The suggestion may be that the exchange of labour for immediate transient pleasures, rather than something more substantial, reveals his very innocence. A Version of La Gioia was purchased by the Royal Household for Capodimonte in the same year, where a gallery of modern art for Napolitan paintings and sculptures had been established. Belliazzi's "Rosina, La Contadinella Abruzzese" had been purchased for this gallery in the preceeding year (1873) and later in 1877 a further marble group of Belliazzi's, the impressive "L'avvivinarsi della Porcella", joined them. This latter sculpture is a masterpiece of verismo, depicting a mother and child battling home against a storm, having collected firewood in the countryside. It was exhibited in Paris, Munich and Naples, where Belliazzi was by now well known. Belliazzi also exhibited works in Milan (1872), Vienna (1873), Antwerp (1894) and London and St. Louis (1904). Royal patronage continued with commission, from King Umberto I in 1888, for a marble statue of Carlo III for one of the niches in the facade of the Palazzo Reale in Naples, where a series of statues of Napolitan Kings were displayed. Vittorio Emmanuele II purchased Belliazzi's "La Primavera" in 1872. Belliazzi was made professor of sculpture at the Instituto di Belle Art in Naples from 1895 to 1912, when he retired.
Panzetta p.25; Vicario p.112; de Micheli pp.283.5; Sapori pp.200, 440
